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Smog
Plus TBA
Date:
June 20, 2001
Doors:
8:30 PM
Show: 9:00
PM
Tickets:
On Sale Now
$12 General Admission
Age Restrictions:
6 and over
Kitchen:
Limited
Seating: Limited |
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An underrecognized pioneer of the lo-fi revolution, Smog
was essentially the alias of one
Bill Callahan, an enigmatic singer/songwriter whose odd, fractured
music neatly epitomized the tenets and excesses of the home-recording
boom. Melancholy, poignant and self-obsessed, Callahan's four-track
output offered a peepshow view into an insular world of alienation
and inner turmoil, his painfully intimate songs ping-ponging wildly
through a scrapbook of childhood recollections, failed relationships,
bizarre fetishes and dashed hopes. Smog
debuted in 1988 with the spare, primitive Macrame
Gunplay, a cassette-only release issued on Callahan's own
Disaster label. Cow followed
in 1989, while three more tapes — A
Table Setting, Tired Tape Machine
and Sewn to the Sky — issued
a year later. With 1991's Floating
EP, Smog signed to the Chicago-based
indie label Drag City, and with
the move began an advancement towards more traditional songcraft;
the subsequent full-length Forgotten Foundation
was his most well-rounded effort yet, employing a stronger sense of
melody while remaining true to the trademark bare-bones atmosphere.
1993's superb Julius Caesar raised
the stakes considerably: recorded with collaborators Cynthia Dall
and Jim O'Rourke, the album expanded the Smog palette to include touches
of cello, violin and even banjo. At the same time, Callahan's songs
were his best yet: highlighted by the touching "Chosen One"
and the menacing "Your Wedding," Julius Caesar also featured
"I Am Star Wars!," a hilarious rant built around a tape
loop of the intro to the Stones' "Honky Tonk Women." The
six-track Burning Kingdom EP appeared
the following year. 1995's Wild Love
continued Smog's approach towards relative sonic grandeur; led off
by the remarkable "Bathysphere" (its title a fitting metaphor
for Callahan's self-absorption) and climaxed by the epic "Prince
Alone in the Studio" (a virtual theme song for a solitary creative
existence), the LP reflected his bitter obsessions with stunning clarity,
emerging as a triumph of abject failure. After 1996's
Kicking a Couple Around EP, Smog
resurfaced later in the year with The Doctor
Came at Dawn; Red Apple Falls followed
in 1997. The peripatetic Callahan
relocated to Chicago prior to the release of 1999's Knock
Knock, resurfacing in the spring of 2000 with Dongs
of Sevotion and the Strayed EP. Neath
the Puke Tree followed that fall. —
Jason Ankeny, AMG |
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